The following Toledo Blade story highlights whether or not Officer Chandler should have been allowed out on the streets so early after the fatal police shooting of Linda Hicks.
The 18-year-old boy who was struck by Officer Chandler’s police cruiser is represented by our Toledo, Ohio pedestrian car accident lawyers and we were were interested to read the following article in the Toledo Blade:
Six weeks after Officer Diane Chandler shot and killed a 62-year-old woman with mental illness who tried to attack her with scissors, the Toledo police officer struck a theft suspect with her cruiser.
Officer Chandler was unable to control her vehicle on the ice and struck Mr. Lewis, said Dan Wagner, president of the Toledo Police Patrolman’s Association union.Officer Chandler, 33, spent this week trailing police investigators and has agreed to join a program that will keep her off patrol for one to three months as she shadows Toledo Police detectives, authorities said.
Police Chief Mike Navarre called her temporary shift “a mutual decision” and said she is not being punished.”We already investigated the accident. She didn’t do anything wrong,” he said.
The crash happened about 5 p.m. Jan. 28, after two police cruisers pursued two suspects in a stolen car on City Park Avenue. The driver, Quentin Kenney, 16, of 1239 Hamilton St., fled, according to police reports, and the passenger, Nathaniel Lewis, Jr., 18, of 657 Hamilton, also ran.
Mr. Lewis was ahead of Officer Chandler’s vehicle when a second cruiser pulled in front of him. When he turned to flee from the second cruiser, he ran toward Officer Chandler, reports said.
The man spent the night at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center and was released with minor back and head injuries, said Charles Boyk, his attorney.
Mr. Boyk, a Toledo personal injury lawyer, said it is only a coincidence that he is dealing with the Lewis family and the family of Linda Hicks, who witnesses say was wielding scissors and threatening officers before she was shot by Officer Chandler on Dec. 14.
“We had no idea that she was the driver,” he said of the matter involving Mr. Lewis. He added that no civil suit has been filed against Officer Chandler or the Toledo police in relation to either incident.
A firearms review board ruled last month that Officer Chandler was justified in shooting Ms. Hicks. The incident started when the officer and her partner responded to a complaint that Ms. Hicks was threatening her caregivers at a group home on Fernwood Avenue.
After a confrontation in which Ms. Hicks reportedly lunged at her, Officer Chandler fired four shots, hitting Ms. Hicks in the head, chest, and abdomen.
The shadowing program allows a temporary assignment to a special unit of the police force, so officers can consider “later in their career if they wanted to do it,” Mr. Wagner said.
He elected to join the program in 1999 after he was involved in an incident in which he was videotaped subduing a man with a baton.
The incident incited public criticism and allegations of racism, because the man is black and Mr. Wagner is white.
“I chose to then remove myself from the streets…,” Mr. Wagner said, adding that he spent two months shadowing police detectives. “You don’t want to deal with the public scrutiny when you are dealing with the day to day.”
He said he advised Officer Chandler to do the same. “I thought she returned to the streets a little too early,” Mr. Wagner said.
If you or someone you know has been injured in an Ohio pedestrian car accident, order your free copy of The Ohio Accident Book by calling our Toledo, Ohio pedestrian car accident lawyers at 800.637.8170.
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